The Culture of Fear (42 page)

55
Cooke, “TV Causes Violence?”

56
Among the more cogent critiques: Brian Siano, “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed,”
TheHumanist
54 (January-February 1994): 19—25. On non-U.S. studies see Oene Wiegman et al., “A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Television Viewing on Aggressive and Prosocial Behavior,”
British Journal of Social Psychology
31 (1992): 147-64. An overview and elaboration of the complexities of causal analysis in this body of research: Cecilia von Feilitzen, “Media Violence,” in C. Hamelink and O. Linne, eds.,
Mass Communication Research
(Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1994), pp. 147-70.

57
Brandon Centerwall, “Our Cultural Perplexities,”
Public Interest,
no. 111 (Spring 1993): 56-72; David Horowitz, “V Is for Vacuous Censorship,”
Los Angeles Times,
8 February 1996, p. B9.

58
David McDowall, “Firearm Availability and Homicide Rates in Detroit,” Social
Forces
69 (1991): 1085-1101; Daniel Webster et al., “Gun Violence Among Youth ... ,”
Pediatrics
94 (1994): 617-22; Arthur Kellerman et al., “Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor for Homicide in the Home,”
New England Journal of Medicine
329 (1993): 1084-92; Howard Schubiner et al., “Exposure to Violence Among Inner-City Youth,”
Journal of Adolescent Health
14 (1993): 214—19; Joseph Sheley et al., “Gun-related Violence in and Around Inner-City Schools,”
American Journal ofDiseasesof Children
146 (1992): 677-82;
Colin Loftin et al., “Effects of Restrictive Licensing of Handguns on Homicide ... ,”
New England Journal of Medicine
325 (1991): 1615—20; D. Weatherburn, “Gun Control and Homicide,”
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology
28 (1995): 116—20; Patrick O‘Carroll et al., “Preventing Homicide,”
American Journal of Public Health
81 (1991): 576-81; William Bratton, “Mr. Heston, the Police Are Not the Enemy,”
New York Times,
20 June 1998, p. A20; Richard Alba and Steven Messner, “Point-blank Against Itself,”
Journal of Quantitative Criminology
11 (1995): 391-410; David Lester and Antoon Leenaars, “Gun Control and Rates of Firearms Violence in Canada and the United States,”
Canadian Journal of Criminology
36 (1994): 463-64. Dunblane upshot: “Heaven’s Door,”
Time,
6 January 1997, p. 133.

59
Scheer, “Violence Is Us” (contains Bochco remark); Charles Anderson, “Violence in Television Commercials During Nonviolent Programming,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
278 (1 October 1997): 1045-46.

60
George Gerbner, “Violence and Terror in and by the Media,” in M. Raboy and B. Dagenais, eds.,
Media, Crisis and Democracy
(Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992), pp. 94-107. See also Nancy Signorielli, “Television’s Mean and Dangerous World,” in N. Signorielli and M. Morgan, eds.,
Cultivation Analysis
(Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990), pp. 85-106; Marilyn Elias, “Watching TV News Can Shake Up Kids,”
USA Today,
18 August 1998, p. D 1. Evidence that people’s feelings about crime follow from what they see in the media: Jeffrey Alderman, “Leading the Public,”
Public Perspective
5 (1994): 26-27; Cheryl Russell, “True Crime,”
American Demographics
(August 1995): 22-32. George Gerbner, “Television Violence,” in G. Dines and J. Humez, eds.,
Gender, Race and Class in Media
(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995), pp. 547-57 (quote on p. 553).

61
George Gerbner, “The Politics of Media Violence,” in Hamelink and Linne,
Mass Communication Research,
pp. 133—45. For another example of the reception to his ideas see
TV Guide,
“Violence on Television,” symposium sponsored by
TV Guide
in 1992, subsequently published in pamphlet form.

62
Mark Warr, “Fear of Victimization,”
Public Perspective
5 (1993): 25-28; Joan Barthel, “How Crime Has Victimized Us Over-50s,”
New Choices for Retirement Living
34 (1994): 18-25; “Older Women’s Fear,” segment on Cable News Network, 6 September 1994; Mohsen Bazargan, “The Effects of Health, Environmental, and Socio-Psychological Variables on Fear of Crime ... ,”
International Journal of Aging and Human Development
38 (1994): 99-115; Arthur Patterson, “Fear of Crime ...
”Journalof Architectural and Planning Research
2 (1985): 277-88; Glen Allen, “A Dark Season of Fear,”
Maclean’s
102 (6 November 1989): 18-19; Neal Krause, “Stress and Isolation from Close Ties in Later Life,”
Journal of Gerontology
46 (1991): 183-95; “Behind the Numbers,”
Modern Maturity
38 (May—June 1995): 93-94. See also Alderman, “Leading the Public.”

63
Judith Gaines, “Crimes Against Elderly Put Them in a Prison of Fears,”
Boston Globe,
22 June 1994, p. 1; John Hurst, “Crime and the Elderly of L.A.,”
Los Angeles Times,
24 October 1994, p. B1. On earlier overreporting of crimes against the elderly see Mark Fishman, “Crime Waves as Ideology,”
Social Problems
25 (1978): 531-43.

64
Statistic from Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Elderly Crime Victims,” Washington, DC, March 1994. Quotes from “Rosa Parks’s Mugging,”
Washington Post,
4 September
1994, p. C6. For other portrayals of the elderly as particularly vulnerable see Jon Jeter, “Slaying Heightens Anxiety Among Elderly,”
Washington Post,
24 November 1994, p.A1; Bill McClellan, “Vulnerable Victim Can Set Stage for Perfect Crime,”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
26 February 1995, p. C1.

65
Parks’s and neighbors’ cautions: James Bennet, “Sadness and Anger After a Legend Is Mugged,”
New York Times,
1 September 1994, p. A16. Other quotes from Donna Britt, “Parks Once Again Becomes a Symbol,”
Washington Post,
2 September 1994, p. C1.

66
John Ritter, “For Some Elderly, Fear Darkens Golden Years,”
USA Today,
17 November 1994, p. A7.

67
Timothy Egan, “Old, Ailing and Finally a Burden Abandoned,”
New York Times,
26 March 1992, p. A1; “Granny Dumping by the Thousands,”
New York Times,
29 March 1992, p. E16. Another example of the coverage: J. Madeleine Nash, “When Love Is Exhausted,”
Time,
6 April 1992, p. 24.

68
Leslie Bennetts, “Apparent Dumping,”
Columbia Journalism Review
(September-October 1992): 15-17; Associated Press, “Woman convicted in father dumping,”
New York Times,
4 December 1992, p. A24.

69
ABC, “20/20,” 20 January 1995.

70
“Malnutrition Hits Many Elderly,”
New York Times,
3 July 1995, p. 28.

1
Ira Berkow, “An Athlete Dies Young, but by His Own Hand,”
New York Times,
1 October 1995, pp. 20, 24.

2
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Prescription Error Claims Dad’s Angel’,”
Washington Post,
31 October 1994, pp. A1, 11.

3
Ibid., p. 14; Berkow, “Athlete Dies Young.”

4
Hunger statistics based on reports from the Institute for Food and Development Policy, Oakland, CA, and the Urban Institute, Washington, DC.

5
On the estimation and relative significance of adolescent suicide see Kirk Astroth, “Beyond Ephebiphobia: Problem Adults or Problem Youths?”
Phi Delta Kappan
75 (January 1994): 411-14; Mike Males and Kim Smith, “Teen Suicide and Changing Cause of Death Certification,”
Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior
21 (1991): 245-59; John McIntosh, “Older Americans: The Next Suicide Epidemic?”
Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior22
(1992): 322-32.

6
Statistics: David Shaffer, “Advances in Youth Suicide Research Update,” article distributed by the American Suicide Foundation, 1995; Kim Painter, “Suicide Among Young Teens Increases 120%,”
USA Today,
21 April 1995, p. 2D. Local upturns: Brian MacQuarrie, “Best Friends in Life, Mysteries in Death,”
Boston Globe,
5 April 1998, p. B1; ABC, “Good Morning America” (story on suicides in Michigan), 22 October 1997. L.A.: Mike Males, “State’s Teenage Suicide Rate Declines,”
Los Angeles Times,
14 December 1997, p. M1; Elizabeth Gleick, “Suicide’s Shadow,”
Time,
22 July 1996, pp. 39—42.

7
Firearm Suicide in the U.S.,
report by the Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence, Washington, DC, May 1995, pp. 14-15.

8
Shaffer, “Advances in Youth Suicide”; Christina Del Valle, “The Specter of Teen Suicide,”
Newsday,
8 November 1997, p. B1; “Youth with Runaway, Throwaway and Homeless Experiences,” report by the Dept. of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC, 1995; Janice Arenofsky, “Teen Suicide,”
Current Health
24 (1997): 16-18. See also Jan Neeleman, Simon Wessely, and Michael Wadsworth, “Predictors of Suicide, Accidental Death, and Premature Natural Death in a General-Population Birth Cohort,”
Lancet
351 (1998): 93—97.

9
Berkow, “Athlete Dies Young.”

10
USA Today,
“Special Report,” 15 April 1995, pp. A1—3, 8; Doug Sword, “Many Indiana Teens Are Gambling,”
Indianapolis Star,
11 July 1998, p. C1; Art Levine, “Playing the Adolescent Odds,”
U.S. News & World Report,
18 June 1990, p. 51; ABC News, “World News Sunday,” 12 March 1995. See also Ricardo Chavira, “The Rise of Teenage Gambling,”
Time,
25 February 1991, p. 78.

11
David Holmstrom, “Teenage Gambling Addiction Grows,”
Christian Science Monitor,
8 December 1992, p. 1; Howard Shaffer, Richard LaBrie, et al., “Pathological Gambling Among Adolescents,”
Journal of Gambling Studies
10 (1995): 339-62; Ken Winters, Randy Stinchfield, and Jayne Fulkerson, “Patterns and Characteristics of Adolescent Gambling,”
Journal of Gambling Studies
9 (1993): 371-86; Eric Griffen, Kenneth Sandler, and Cynthia Lees, “Multiple Addictions Among Dually Diagnosed Adolescents,”
Journal of Adolescent Chemical Dependency
2 (1992): 35-44; Mark Griffiths, “Factors in Problem Adolescent Fruit Machine Gambling,”
Journal of Gambling Studies
9 (1993): 31—45; Howard Shaffer et al., eds.,
Compulsive Gambling
(Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1989); Douglas Carroll and Justine Huxley, “Cognitive, Dispositional, and Psychophysiological Correlates of Dependent Slot Machine Gambling in Young People,”
Journal of Applied Social Psychology
24 (1994): 1070-83.

12
Sue Fisher, “The Pull of the Fruit Machine,”
Sociological Review
41 (1993): 446-74.

13
Jim Nesbitt, “Teens Vulnerable to Betting Addiction,”
Seattle Times,
29 March 1998, p. A1; Brett Pulley, “Those Seductive Snake Eyes,”
New York Times,
16 June 1998, pp. A1, 23.

14
Chavira, “Rise of Teenage Gambling”; Susan Howlett, “Risky Business,”
Los Angeles Times,
14 September 1993, pp. E1—2; Holmstrom, “Teenage Gambling Addiction Grows.”

15
Howard Shaffer and Matthew Hall, “Estimating the Prevalence of Adolescent Gambling Disorders,”
Journal of Gambling Studies
12 (1996): 193-214; Constance Holden, “Gambling on the Increase,”
Science
279 (23 January 1998): 485; Howard Shaffer, “Youthful Addiction and Gambling,” talk delivered 27 October 1995 and distributed through the National Center for Responsible Gaming; Pulley, “Seductive Snake Eyes.” On maturing out see also Barry Glassner and Julia Loughlin,
Drugs and Crime in Adolescent Worlds
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987).

16
Pulley, “Seductive Snake Eyes.”

17
Ray Robinson, “Is Rimm’s Porn Study ‘Cyberfraud’?”
The Press of Atlantic City Online,
11 July 1995; Philip Elmer-Dewitt, “On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn,”
Time,
3 July 1995, pp. 38—45.

18
Robinson, “Is Rimm’s Porn Study ‘Cyberfraud’?”; Philip Elmer-Dewitt, “Fire Storm on the Computer Nets,”
Time,
24 July 1995, p. 57.

19
Donna Hoffman and Thomas Novak, “A Detailed Critique of the Time Article,” posted in July 1995 at
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Owen/HomePage.html
; Brock N. Meeks, “CyberWire Dispatch on Time and the Rimm Study,” posted in July 1995 at
http://www.cyberwerks.com
:70/1/cyberwire.

20
Elmer-Dewitt, “On a Screen Near You.”

21
Hoffman and Novak, “A Detailed Critique”; Meeks, “CyberWire Dispatch.”

22
The technological generation gap: Laura Miller, “Fear of
net.sex
,”
Wired,
November 1995, p. 138. The act: Floyd Abrams, “Clinton vs. the First Amendment,”
New York Times,
30 March 1997, p. F42 (contains Frankfurter quote); Joshua Quittner, “Free Speech for the Net,”
Time,
24 June 1996, pp. 56-57; Steven Levy, “U.S. v. the Internet,”
Newsweek,
31 March 1997, pp. 77-79. On blocking software and other resources available to parents see also Michael Banks, “Filtering the Net in Libraries,”
Computers in Libraries
18 (March 1998): 50-54; Donna Rice Hughes,
Kids Online: Protecting Your Children
in
Cyberspace
(Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 1998).

23
Time’s
follow-up piece: Elmer-Dewitt, “Fire Storm,” p. 57. On the rarity of a news medium admitting it got a story wrong: Conrad Smith,
Media and Apocalypse
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992), pp. 24—25, 187-88.

24
Abductions: Gunnar Stickler et al., “Parents’ Worries About Children Compared to Actual Risks,”
Clinical Pediatrics
30 (1991): 522—28; press releases in 1995 from SafeCard Services reporting surveys by Audits and Surveys; David Finkelhor, Gerald Hotaling, and Andrea Sedlak, “The Abduction of Children by Strangers and Nonfamily Members,”
Journal of Interpersonal
Violence 7 (1992): 226-43; information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. On the history of panics over missing children see Paula Fass,
Kidnapped
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).